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The Governor of the Bank of England has compared himself to Matt Le Tissier, the brilliant but mercurial Southampton footballer.
When asked in an interview with the Southern Daily Echo what his job has been like during the financial crisis, Mervyn King told the newspaper: "It's a bit like Matthew Le Tissier taking a penalty.
"You and I would find it very stressful to take a penalty in those circumstances but that's his job and it was our job to deal with that."
Economists and City analysts who pore over the mutterings of one of the world's most important central bankers will be attempting to interpret his apparently Eric Cantonaesque utterance.
As a keen football fan and Aston Villa supporter, King will not have used the analogy lightly.
Le Tissier was a famously nerveless penalty taker who missed from the spot just once in his career, which might indicate the Governor believes himself to be near-infallibile.
The former Southampton star however was equally well-known for never having received the international recognition that many thought he deserved, playing for England just eight times during his career.
The Le Tissier reference is King's strangest remark since he likened the state of the economy in 2000 to "old fashioned disco-dancing - sharp movements in unpredictable directions creating much excitement accompanied by a great deal of noise".
The rest of King's comments were more typically Bank of England downbeat.
Forecasting when an upturn might happen was practically impossible said King.
"No one knows what will happen," he said. "It's very easy to lose confidence quickly and indeed it was lost in a very short period of time.
"You can't regain it quickly, so it's bound to take a lot longer to recover than it was to fall into recession. I don't think it would be sensible to expect activity to pick up as quickly.
"Precisely how long and how rapidly activity will recover, I think it's very hard to judge. We are in unknown territory and this is undoubtedly the worst financial crisis the world has ever seen.
"We are seeing signs that the rate at which outlook was falling is flattening, but I don't think anyone should draw strong conclusions."#
